Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday interrogated Trinamool neta Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the cash-for-jobs case the agency is already probing. Banerjee came out of the CGO Complex office after 11 hours of interrogation.Banerjee, who was earlier questioned in the case in 2023, entered the CGO Complex office on Monday around 11 am with his security personnel. While pushing through the crowd of media persons, Banerjee remained silent as a barrage of questions were flung at him.Banerjee came out of the CGO Complex office after 11 hours. Addressing the media after coming out, Banerjee said, “Those who have been arrested got bail now. We tried our best to give jobs to the deserving candidates. We wanted that the eligible and deserving candidates should be added through a transparent process. I have tried in my own way to cooperate with the agency. I will cooperate with them in future if they need me,” said Banerjee.Abhishek also termed this as political victimisation and an attempt to break Trinamool. Banerjee had been asked to appear before the CID again on Tuesday on an FIR related to speeches he had made during polls.According to ED sources, the agency has come across “proceeds of crime”, generated from the cash-for-jobs scam, being transferred to Leaps & Bounds and companies linked to it. The name of Leaps & Bounds surfaced when the central agency officials started looking into the accounts of SD Consultancy — a company linked to Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias “Kalighater Kaku” — an employee of Leaps & Bounds. Bhadra later became a director of the company.While Banerjee, who was earlier a director of the Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd, had resigned from the post, his parents Amit Banerjee and Lata Banerjee continued to hold the post of the director. Investigators have reasons to believe that three transactions of Rs 48.6 lakh, Rs 45.3 lakh and Rs 1 lakh made between Feb 2020 and Jan 2021 was linked to the Leaps & Bounds. SD Consultancy paid a total of Rs 95 lakh to Leaps and Bounds. In 2023, the ED team conducted a night-long search at the office of Leaps and Bounds and the Lee Road flat of Bhadra’s son-in-law. Earlier in 2024, ED had informed Calcutta High Court about attachment of properties with “book value” of Rs 148.5 crore from companies linked to Leaps & Bounds.ED officials on Monday asked Banerjee if he was aware of any consultancy fee paid to the Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd. They also asked him about his role as a director of the company. ED in a charge sheet filed earlier, claimed that Bhadra was in touch with Abhishek Banerjee and spoke over phone. In its charge sheet, the central investigating agency said that it has come across names of a few businessmen and a few companies which have helped in stashing away cash generated from the cash for jobs scam.
